Startups With a Socially Responsible Bent Pitch Their Ideas for Prizes to Help Them Grow

With more than 200 in the audience, the Civic Accelerator Demo Night and Good Frenzy Atlanta ended a day of innovation June 16 at the Conference on Volunteering and Service – shining a light on local and national social entrepreneurs.

Representatives from the winning teams, from left – Piggybackr, City Pioneers and urbnearth – show their award certificates.

The evening at the World of Coca-Cola featured the graduating spring 2014 class of the Points of Light Civic Accelerator, a 12-week boot camp for entrepreneurs launching enterprises with a social purpose.

The event started with a VIP networking session bringing together startups with industry leaders, influencers and change-makers. A warm-up competition called Good Frenzy Atlanta, a nod to ventures emerging in the Conference's host city, featured six innovative Atlanta-based social startups that presented three-minute pitches. Prizes included a featured interview on WXIA-TV (the local NBC affiliate) and a three-month team membership to NEX Atlanta.

Then the 14 startups participating in the Civic Accelerator had three minutes to compete for some startup essentials from prize sponsors, including legal services provided by Taylor English Duma LLP, a subscription to iMeet, compliments of PGI, and profiles on CSRWire.

Congratulations to the winners:

Best Pitch/People's Choice – City Pioneers of Atlanta, which connects local public organizations with hometown talent to solve city challenges and create an ecosystem of public entrepreneurs

Greatest Impact Potential – Piggybackr of San Francisco, which teaches teams of all ages and experience levels how to crowdfund

Most Innovative – urbnearth of San Francisco, which makes guided gardening kits that empower everyone to experience the health benefits of homegrown food

The guest judging panel included Joy Anderson, co-founder of SOCAP and Good Capital, and president and founder of Criterion Institute; Anna Cunningham, manager of global responsibility at Starbucks Foundation; Joe Sibilia, CEO of CSRWire; and Amy Stursberg, executive director of The Blackstone Charitable Foundation.

The audience selected the People's Choice winner by using a mobile app.

To find out what else happened at the 2014 Conference on Volunteering and Service in Atlanta, click here.